The coordinating committee of WORLD POETRY MOVEMENT and the coordinating committee of WPM Africa announced the details of the 1^st congress of the World Poetry Movement entitled "Migration from Death to Life".

BACKGROUND

The Coordinating Committee of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) convened its 1st Congress, at its meeting in Caracas in November 2022, to project the Movement as a more visible world poetic force, mobilizing contemporary society and individual and collective consciousness in the present time. To make this possible, WPM has a clear mission, objectives and proposals; its organization must be solid, coordinated and participatory, and must rely on effective internal and external channels of communication.

The 1st WPM Congress will be held in Medellín from July 13 to 15, and in Caracas from July 17 to 20, 2023. It will be attended -in person and virtually- by 60 poets, full delegates elected by four continental preparatory congresses, and an undetermined number of observer poets.

The aim of the Congress is to generate a strategic plan for WPM 2023-2028; to elect a coordinating committee (CC) and an executive committee to carry out the necessary actions to fulfill the designs of the Congress; and to define the basic lines of development and operation and the characteristics and functions of the coordinating committee, the continental coordinators and the national coordinators.

WPM AFRICA VIRTUAL CONGRESS

In order to move towards the 1st WPM Congress it is necessary to hold preparatory congresses on each continent. The first of these will be the virtual WPM Africa Congress, to be held virtually on January 21-22, 2023.

The 24 WPM national coordinators in Africa are invited to this Congress and are asked to submit a short report. The report of the WPM national coordinators should contain a greeting, an account of the activities that have been carried out in each country; a description of the group with which they work; comments to the WPM central report, proposals for the development of WPM and for its strategic plan.

The reports must be submitted in writing (two pages), or recorded and sent in video, before the beginning of the Congress to worldpoetrymovement@gmail.com, or expressed verbally during the Congress, in a time not longer than six to eight minutes. 

Members of the CC and other African poets who, although they do not have the status of full delegates, may also participate as observers with the right to intervene in the field of proposals. Interventions to discuss reports and present proposals should not exceed 3-4 minutes.

The moderators of the Congress will be the poets: Ayo Ayoola-Amale (Ghana), Ashraf Aboul-Yazid Dali (Egypt), Siphiwe Nzima (Lesotho) and Ismaël Diadié (Mali). Two rapporteurs will be appointed.

The proposed agenda for the WPM Africa Virtual Congress is as follows:

1st day: 10:00 GMT

The presence of the delegates necessary to constitute the quorum will be verified.

1. Report from the WPM Coordinating Committee, by Fernando Rendón.

2. WPM African Coordination Report presented by Ayo Ayoola-Amale.

3. Greetings from a representative of WPM Europe, a representative of WPM Asia, a representative of WPM America (4 minutes each).

4. Reports from the 24 national coordinators of WPM Africa.

5. Interventions around the reports.

2nd day: 10:00 GMT

1. Proposals for the work and development of WPM in Africa and in the world.

2. Selection of 15 delegates to the WPM Congress for face-to-face or virtual participation.

OPERATION

Thanks to the logistics provided by the Ministry of Communication and Information and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which support the Virtual African Congress, it will be held with the participation of interpreters from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

The access link to the Congress will be sent to the participants one or two days before the WPM Africa Virtual Congress.

The Congress will be recorded and broadcasted through YouTube, FB and other networks.

All continental and national coordinators will support the dissemination of the graphic pieces and other dissemination elements to be designed.